Terbium metallicum

de Ulrich Welte

3. Terbium-met: Keeping control over the anamnesis.
He is a true gentleman colleague of about 50 summers. He had severe eczema on the covered parts for some years. It started 3 years ago in the sacral region and on the legs and was increasing and spreading all over the body except the face and hands. Formerly he had cracked skin on the tip of his thumbs for 10 years and when this subsided the present eruption appeared. This new eruption appeared strictly symmetrical. It was humid and itching. There was amelioration by binding his legs tightly, otherwise his skin oozed and got very wet. The skin is worse at 19h and on going to bed and best in the morning and after sleep. When he wakes he sometimes gets a rushing noise in the ears. He had consulted different specialists. The diagnosis differed from nummular psoriasis to eczema. No allergies. His color preference is light blue 16BC.

He is the director of a hospital. He thinks that allopathic ointments or cortisone tablets are not satisfying treatments because they can only suppress the external symptom. He understands that the eruption is an external manifestation of an internal disease which is subtle and may be connected with the mind and that homeopathy may help. He was treated by another homeopath with polycrests, and sulphur helped him in his sensitivity to alcohol (he got headaches after a small glass of wine), but the eruption did not yield. He is a balanced and jovial man and well respected. During the anamnesis he did not display his inner feelings. In fact he kept full control over the anamnesis by telling all what he thought was important.

Analysis:
Being a director with a responsible attitude points to the goldseries. He understands the limitations of allopathic treatment and is open to trying homeopathy, which shows that he relies on his own insight more than on prejudice. This points to a lanthanide. His balanced ways and the symmetry of the eruption seemed to indicate stage 10, and because he had responded to Sulphur before, I gave Gadolinium sulphuricum 200. The remedy aggravated severely. The eruption got so bad that he suppressed it with cortisone to get some relief. It reappeared, so he came back and gave me another chance. I was in a hurry and gave Dysprosium-met. LM 6 daily without much reasoning, just because I saw two other cases of Dysprosium with the same color preference 16B. Without any aggravation, after 2 days the eruption got better and subsided after 4 weeks from above downward. It was 90% better and there was only a little itching left. He was very happy and sent me a nice video presentation of his legs before and after treatment, but when he stopped taking the remedy the eruption slowly reappeared and he took it again. It helped after 3-4 days. I was already in doubt about Dysprosium because he didn’t have the fighting and over-defensive attitude of stage 12. In fact stage 11 was so obvious! His jovial and gentleman-like attitude, his need to keep full control over the anamnesis and not able to let go, but I had not understood Terbium, so I missed it. At that time I was supervising the translation of Jan’s book Secret Lanthanides into German and it was the Terbium chapter's turn. It then became clear that this must be the remedy for this case. He was given Terbium metallicum 200. The eruption improved from 90 to 99% in 2 weeks and his tinnitus had disappeared initially and returned slightly. It was a forgotten symptom, but he mentioned it on his own accord. So we tried Terb-met LM1 daily. With this potency it took almost a week until the tinnitus stopped. For 3 months now, he has been completely fine.